Philosophy : Epistemology

This book offers the first sustained treatment of Descartes' conception of innateness. The concept of innateness is central to Descartes' epistemology; the Meditations display a new, non-Aristotelian method of acquiring knowledge by attending properly to our innate ideas. Yet understanding Descartes' conception of innate ideas is not an easy task and some commentators have concluded that Descartes held several distinct and unrelated conceptions of innateness.In "Descartes on Innate Ideas", however, Deborah Boyle argues that Descartes' remarks on innate ideas in fact form a unified account. Addressing the further question of how Descartes thinks innate ideas are known, the author shows that for Descartes, thinkers have implicit knowledge of their innate ideas. Thus she shows that the actual perception of these innate ideas is, for Descartes, a matter of making them explicit, turning the intellect away from sense-perceptions and towards pure thought. The author also provides a new interpretation of the Cartesian 'natural light', an important mental faculty in Descartes' epistemology. more...

Price: $130.00

In this new collection of essays, a distinguished group of philosophers of religion explore the question of divine hiddenness in considerable detail. The issue is approached from several religious perspectives including Jewish, Christian, atheist and agnostic. A substantial introduction clarifies the main problems of and leading solutions to divine hiddenness. more...

Price: $24.00

Provenance and Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. Emotions: The Legacy of James and Freud. 2. Primitive Emotions. 3. Cognitivism and the Theory of Emotion. 4. Emotions and Values. 5. The Politics of Disgust and Shame. 6. Emotions and the Authority of Law: Variations on Themes from Bentham and Austin. 7. All Kinds of Guilt. 8. Promises under Fire. 9. Moral Agency and Criminal Insanity. 10. Liberalism and Freedom more...

Price: $65.00

The original theory of finance which grows out of this critique is of interest to students and researchers of financial economics, practitioners in finance and policy-makers. more...

Price: $240.00

The Enquiry considers the origin and processes of human thought and argues that we should liberate ourselves from the 'superstition' of false metaphysics and religion. This edition places the work in its historical and philosophical context. - ;'Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.'. Thus ends David Hume's Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, the definitive statement of the greatest philosopher in the English language. His arguments in support of reasoning from experience, and against the 'sophistry and illusion' of religiously inspired philosophical fantasies, caused controversy in the eighteenth century and are strikingly relevant today, when faith and science continue to clash. The Enquiry considers the origin and processes of human thought, reaching the stark conclusion that we can have no ultimate understanding of the physical world, or indeed our own minds. In either sphere we must depend on instinctive learning from experience, recognizing our animal nature and the limits of reason. Hume's calm and open-minded scepticism thus aims to provide a new basis for science, liberating us from the 'superstition' of false metaphysics and religion. His Enquiry. remains one of the best introductions to the study of philosophy, and this edition places it in its historical and philosophical context. - more...

Price: $8.95